Dulce et Decorum Est Essay | Essay

Wilfred Owen's Poetry

Summary: As his poems "Dulce et Decorum Est," "The Last Laugh," and "The Next War" illustrate, Wilfred Owen successfully conveyed the horror experienced on the battlefield. Owen's eloquent style and his use of poetic elements such as onomatopoeia and personification enabled him to communicate effectively his criticism of war and its psychological effects.

Owen explores the horrors of war, through the power of his poetry he manages to convey, so vividly the graphic images of the battlefield through taking the responder there to see, hear and smell the horrific reality of war. Such horrors can be visualised through the poems Dulce ET Decorum EST, The Last Laugh and The Next War.

The consistent use of onomatopoeia to recreate the sounds of the battlefield is an important part of Owen's criticism of war and psychological effects. The relentless sound of artillery sent men into shell shock, a form of war induced insanity.

The horror of war is certainly shown in `Dulce et Decorum est', the most famous of Owen's poems and is often considered the most powerful. It examines the exhaustion of soldiers on the front and the horror of a gas attack, which kills a soldier. The title is Latin and...